Robert (Bob) Lawrie was a supplier of specialist polar and mountaineering boots and equipment as well as being an accomplished climber. Amongst others he supplied Everest expeditions including Hugh Ruttledge’s 1933 and John Hunt’s in 1953 which resulted in New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay becoming the first climbers to reach the summit. In recognition of his contribution to climbing and exploration he has a glacier named after him in Graham Land in Antarctica.

He was also a keen amateur racing driver, driving in four Le Mans 24 hour races starting with the 1949 event in which he used the Aston Martin 2 litre UMD 123 described here, followed by the 1950 event in a Riley 2 ½, 1951 in a Jaguar XK 120 and 1952 in a Morgan.

Julian Booty, co- founder of sports car builders Lenham Motor Company, owned UMD 123 for several years and knew Robert Lawrie quite well. He told me that having followed racing at Le Mans in the 1930’s Robert visited the circuit several times after the war and got to know the race organisers well enough to be invited to drive in the first post war 24 Hour race due to be run in 1949. He then visited the London Motor show and persuaded Aston Martin to build him a car.

His next step was to get a competition licence from the RAC which wasn’t going to be easy as he had never raced a car before (something the Le Mans organisers were not aware of but more of that later!) He started by showing the RAC his invitation to take part in the event which didn’t go down well as they were not aware that any race invitations had been issued and felt it was traditionally their role to do so! However, faced with his formal invitation and his sheer determination, they relented and he walked out of the RAC with his licence in his pocket.

It was only when he got to Le Mans that the organisers discovered that he had never raced a car before and, not surprisingly, were not too pleased. Anyway, he had their invitation, he had his RAC Competition Licence, he had a car and he was there so they arranged that he would do several officially observed laps of the circuit at racing speed. He apparently drove faultlessly so they let him take part with his friend and co-driver Dr. Richard (Dick) Parker.

In Robert Lawrie’s own words he was not expecting to win but he definitely wanted to finish. Aston Martin expert Neil Murray told me that his strategy was to conserve the car rather than thrash it which obviously worked well as towards the end of the race they were running in a very creditable 10th place when Dick Parker (apparently known as “Chum”) pulled in to the pits and offered the car back to Lawrie on the basis that he should take the flag. Despite it being a very gentlemanly offer Lawrie was more than a bit annoyed as they lost a place so missed out on some prize money! Still, they finished in 11th place out of the 19 cars which completed the race and the 49 which started which is really quite an achievement and a great credit to them and their car.

NB to see the full race results copy and paste the following address into your internet browser http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1949_24_Hours_of_Le_Mans